SANS has joined forces with industry leaders to equip security professionals and control system engineers with the cybersecurity skills they need to defend national critical infrastructure. ICS410: ICS/SCADA Security Essentials provides a foundational set of standardized skills and knowledge for industrial cybersecurity professionals. The course is designed to ensure that the workforce involved in supporting and defending industrial control systems is trained to keep the operational environment safe, secure, and resilient against current and emerging cyber threats.

When examining the greatest risks and needs in critical infrastructure sectors, the course authors looked carefully at the core security principles necessary for the range of tasks involved in supporting control systems on a daily basis. While other courses are available for higher-level security practitioners who need to develop specific skills such as industrial control system penetration testing, vulnerability analysis, malware analysis, forensics, secure coding, and red team training, most of these courses do not focus on the people who operate, manage, design, implement, monitor, and integrate critical infrastructure production control systems.

With the dynamic nature of industrial control systems, many engineers do not fully understand the features and risks of many devices. In addition, IT support personnel who provide the communications paths and network defenses do not always grasp the systems' operational drivers and constraints. This course is designed to help traditional IT personnel fully understand the design principles underlying control systems and how to support those systems in a manner that ensures availability and integrity. In parallel, the course addresses the need for control system engineers and operators to better understand the important role they play in cybersecurity. This starts by ensuring that a control system is designed and engineered with cybersecurity built into it, and that cybersecurity has the same level of focus as system reliability throughout the system lifecycle.

When these different groups of professionals complete this course, they will have developed an appreciation, understanding, and common language that will enable them to work together to secure their industrial control system environments. The course will help develop cyber-secure-aware engineering practices and real-time control system IT /OT support carried out by professionals who understand the physical effects of actions in the cyber world.

Please note that some course material for SEC401 may overlap with ICS410. We recommend ICS410 for those interested in security for an ICS/SCADA environment as it is approached from this viewpoint, and SEC401 for those primarily interested in a general information security course.

"Justin brings real world experience and scenarios into the classroom that are directly applicable to the challenges I am facing in the enterprise on a daily basis." - Jeff Ball, Arch Coal

Laptop Required

The ICS410 Industrial Control System Security Essentials course consists of instruction and hands-on sessions. The lab sessions are designed to allow students to utilize the knowledge gained throughout the course in an instructor-led environment. Students will have the opportunity to install, configure, and use the tools and techniques that they have learned.

NOTE: Do not bring a regular production laptop for this class! When installing software, there is always a chance of breaking something else on the system. Students should assume that all data could be lost.

NOTE: It is critical that students have administrator access to the operating system and all security software installed. Changes may need to be made to personal firewalls and other host-based software in order for the labs to work.

Laptop with at least one USB port.

Laptop with DVD Reader.

Latest VMware Player, VMware Workstation, or VWware Fusion installed. Other virtualization software such as Parallels or VirtualBox will probably work if the attendee is familiar with its functionality; however VMware Player should be prepared as a backup just in case.

Ability to disable all security software on their laptop such as Antivirus and/or firewalls

At least twenty (20) GB of hard drive space

At least four (4) GB of RAM

If you have additional questions about the laptop specifications, please contact laptop_prep@sans.org.

Who Should Attend

The course is designed for the range of individuals who work in, interact with, or can affect industrial control system environments, including asset owners, vendors, integrators, and other third parties. These personnel primarily come from four domains:

IT (includes operational technology support)

IT security (includes operational technology security)

Engineering

Corporate, industry, and professional standards

Prerequisites

Course participants need to have a basic understanding of networking and system administration, TCP/IP, networking design/architecture, vulnerability assessment, and risk methodologies. ICS410 covers many of the core areas of security and assumes a basic understanding of technology, networks, and security. For those who are brand new to the field and have no background knowledge, SEC301: Intro to Information Security would be the recommended starting point. While SEC301 is not a prerequisite, it provides introductory knowledge that will help maximize a student's experience with ICS410.

What You Will Receive

Software tools

Virtual Machine environments will be utilized throughout the labs

MP3 audio files of the complete course lecture

You Will Be Able To

Run Windows command line tools to analyze the system looking for high-risk items

Run Linux command line tools (ps, ls, netstat, ect) and basic scripting to automate the running of programs to perform continuous monitoring of various tools

Install VMWare and create virtual machines to create a virtual lab to test and evaluate tools/security of systems

Better understand various industrial control systems and their purpose, application, function, and dependencies on network IP and industrial communications

Author Statement

Eric Cole, Eric Cornelius, and Justin Searle

This course provides students with the essentials for conducting cybersecurity work in industrial control system environments. After spending years working with industry, we believe there is a gap in the skill sets of industrial control system personnel, whether it be cybersecurity skills for engineers or engineering principles for cybersecurity experts. In addition, both information technology and operational technology roles have converged in today's industrial control system environments, so there is a greater need than ever for a common understanding between the various groups who support or rely on these systems. Students in ICS410 will learn the language, the underlying theory, and the basic tools for industrial control system security in settings across a wide range of industry sectors and applications.

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As a SysAdmin, I found this course invaluable. It not only gave me the skills I need to audit my own systems, but also gave me some insight on how to better work with external auditors.Christoper O'Keefe